Facebook and MySpace use among college students

This study was really about the question whether facebook and myspace replaced face to face interaction. Apparently conflicting results were reported. This study used a survey to examine the use of facebook and myspace among 183 college students an it confirmed that the use of these social media acted as an extension instead of a replacement of face to face interaction. Nevertheless some users relied on facebook and mysoace as the most important form of social interaction more than on face to face interaction.

But what was more interesting were the results on how these college students used facebook and myspace. Most of all, the result that 40% reported having no friends on facebook and myspace that they have never met in person and those who did have friends on faceboook whom they never had met reported having an average of 7.2 such friends. Amazing. I’ve a lot of friends I’ve never met. College students that much different from adults?

A total of 8% (n¼14) of the respondents reported having frequently used Facebook and/ or MySpace to meet new people that they have never met before, while 75% (n¼132) reported frequently using it to keep in touch with people whom they already knew

More interesting results

• 52% used both facebook and myspace
• the students used facebook on average 1.2 times per day, spending on average 31.5 minutes each time they use it
• for myspace an average usage of 1.6 times per day, spending an avergae of 38.8 minutes for each use

These were either very well behaved college students or they were lying or the media are lying about youngsters waisting their precious time on the Internet. What do you think?

Carlyne L. Kujath, B.S. (2010). Facebook and MySpace: Complement or Substitute for Face-to-Face Interaction? CYBERPSYCHOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING : 10.1089/cyber.2009.0311